Economics, as it is taught today, cannot be understood without studying its historical evolution. And this history, in turn, cannot be understood without taking into account the conditions that shaped the economic beliefs of that time, including the powerful influences that shaped those conditions in favor of powerful economic interests. This includes the ethical attitudes that survived from the domestic economy of the Greeks, from "biblical" thinking, and from the feudal world of Thomas Aquinas, the French philosophers of the pre-revolutionary period who defended agriculture, and the mercantilist capitalists in the infancy of modern capitalism. This includes Adam Smith, observing the early stages of the modern industrial era, and Marx, reacting to the oppression and alienation of 19th-century capitalism. This book further refers to Keynes, the Great Depression, and the modern welfare state. "Economics in Perspective" is aimed at both the thoughtful layperson or student and the academic economist.